Since ChatGPT first raised its head, I have been experimenting with artificial intelligence (AI) Large Language Models (LLMs). Over the last three years, these AIs have made dramatic strides. AIs are used for company chat on websites. AIs are enhancing search engines to the point that they are supplanting them as the interface for users on the Web.
With AI embedded in all kinds of applications, it is hard for both adults and youth to avoid its use. If you do text messaging by phone, the predictive text feature is AI. If you use autocomplete to fill in a form, you are using AI. Youth who submit résumés created by AI are having recruiters screen and sort through them using AI.
The above examples are AI, but they are not generative AI, which is a whole other ball of wax. Generative AI creates humanlike text. It creates images, artwork, audio files and videos. It can be found on interactive platforms that facilitate conversations. Sometimes it is almost impossible to tell in a chat session whether you are texting a person or an AI. You can tell many times if an AI has been trained on too limited an amount or a poor dataset.
I have recently settled on using a generative AI called Perplexity.ai as my research assistant. That doesn’t mean I don’t continue to experiment with other vendor offerings. Perpexity.ai, however, has demonstrated consistency in the quality of its responses to my questions.
How do I use it to assist me in writing this blog?
Before generative AI tools appeared on the scene, I researched future articles by creating online searches for specific subject matter. These searches ended up piled in my inbox for me to sort through daily. I would select the ones that interested me to write about and then refine my search criteria to help me write the story. Sometimes my reading included jargon-filled scientific research papers. I had to get beyond new terminology to understand the content so that I could write about it using layman’s terms. This involved hours of reading and interpreting. Now, with Perplexity.ai, I can cut through the jargon to get to the essence of a journal article’s content. That doesn’t mean I don’t read the paper, because I do. Perplexity.ai, however, makes it easier for me to learn and saves me time.
When I ask Perplexity.ai a question, it provides answers with links. I spend time on the links. What I never do is accept the AI’s version of the facts until I have read those sources.
So far, Perplexity.ai hasn’t hallucinated or produced nonsense answers. I have, however, noticed that it repeats itself when I rephrase a question. It also repeats the question as an answer at the beginning of its response. I find this latter trait to be quite amusing since this was a sales interviewing technique I learned many years ago.
Salespeople beware!
American Psychological Association Publishes AI Health Advisory
In the past, I have written about the well-being of youth when exposed to social media and small screens. These are areas of interest to the American Psychological Association (APA), as is AI. It recently published a health advisory for youth addressing the subject. For its purposes, the APA defines youth as between the ages of 10 and 25 and asks who needs to be involved in ensuring that youth use AI responsibly.
The APA recommendations are a long list, and recommendations include talking to youth, parents, caregivers, educators, policymakers, and AI developers. The report notes the unique aspects of youth when interacting with AI, including the ages and stages from age 10 to 25 that affect brain development, emotional and physical maturity, and psychological competence. It also notes that the APA cannot overlook past harmful mistakes made in recommendations involving youth and social media.
The APA report describes how youth in different environments with different upbringings react to similar content in very different ways because of temperament, neurodiversity, exposure to stress or violence, social isolation, traumatic experiences, mental health, age, and exposure to socioeconomic or structural disadvantages.
It notes that AI is making discerning truth even more difficult and states that if an AI is trained on Internet content containing misinformation, how can youth discern if what the AI is stating is true or false?
The following is a partial list of recommendations for youth and AI aimed at developers, educators and parents:
- Let youth know that not all AI-generated content is accurate or age-appropriate.
- Discuss with youth the intent of some AI bots and provide age-appropriate privacy and interaction settings with limits.
- Educate youth about potential indicators of misinformation or marketing goals that may be underlying human-bot interactions using gamification as a honeypot, or manipulative notifications and other personalized response tools that can easily be coercive.
- Apply continuous testing with youth groups to identify and mitigate negative impacts of AI applications before they are released to the public.
- Include human oversight and support for youth to report concerns, seek help, or disengage from harmful AI interactions.
- Protect youth data privacy with developers, parents and educators discouraging the posting of images online that could be compromising.
- Provide parental controls and tools that let them set parameters that are suitable and age-appropriate.
For the adults in the room, the APA report includes these further recommendations:
- Educators need to establish an AI literacy core curriculum that spans computer science, social studies, and ethics courses. In addition, teachers need to be trained on AI concepts, algorithmic bias, and responsible AI use.
- Technology developers need to include features that include notifications and reminders to youth that they are interacting with it and not a human. In addition, they need to make AI algorithms and data collection practices transparent and provide educational tools and resources for users.
- Governments need to provide funding for research into AI literacy and develop guidelines and teacher training programs. In addition, governments need to pass regulations to protect youth’s mental and emotional health, ensuring that AI technologies used by youth are safe and beneficial.
